Messenger

"Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."

How many of us are are in the process of doing this work?

From reading her essays, she knew what it was to live with meager means.

She was not living her life or writing her poetry just for coins.

"Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here. . .

to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,

 a mouth with which to give shouts of joy. . ."

In these days of certain misery,

notice where you can use your mouth to give

these shouts of joy...

a glorious blooming iris, a perfect dandelion,

tiny buds on a dormant shrub, 

the wee tendrils pushing up from recently planted seeds.

Loving voices on the phone, little girls dancing, 

a beloved returning, spring flowers in amazing profusion.

We are using our minds and our hearts even though

both are throbbing with reality...

we are using them for the good

even as we're hurting...even when some

temporary meanness seeps out...

we will keep on praising the river of goodness,

rejoicing in her presence even when she's wounded.

We praise her resilience and her power for transformation.

We sit by her sickbed offering the tonic of our presence,

and the promise to remain with her 

"telling her over and over how it is that we live forever."

Namaste'